Extra Energy!
Extra Energy!
Do you always feel tired and sluggish? Well follow these simple tips to keep you bouncing all day long!
Control blood sugar levels.
By eating a healthy balanced diet you can control your blood sugar levels. A chocolate bar might seem like a quick fix when you feel your energy levels dipping but for long term sustained energy you should be eating slow releasing energy foods. Try and cut out the processed food and opt for healthier snacks such as fruit and veg to keep you going through the day. Eat protein and wholegrains at lunch to keep you feeling full for longer so you can keep alert all afternoon.
Exercise regularly.
Aim for at least 30 minutes three times a week to get your heart rate up. Overdoing it will leave your body feeling exhausted but regular moderate exercise will leave you feeling energised and happier.
Breathe deeply.
Make sure you are getting enough oxygen. Take 5 minutes out of your day to meditate and breathe deeply. It will help reduce stress levels.
Restful night’s sleep.
Okay so you might not always be able to get your eight hours in developing a regular sleeping pattern will have you feeling more alert when you awake. You should wake in the morning feeling well rested and ready for the day. If this is not the case then your body is telling you that you need more sleep and you should try and go to bed earlier. Eating late at night or drinking alcohol before bed time can negatively affect our sleep patterns.
Stay hydrated.
You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it again – 2 litres of water a day for your body to be working at it’s optimum. It sounds a lot but put a bottle of water on you desk and sip it through the day and you’ll be amazed how much you can actually get through. Stick with it for a few days to see the results. Your body will adjust and the loo stops will become less frequent.
Eat breakfast.
During the night your blood sugar levels have dropped and you need something to kick start you in the morning. Even if it’s just a piece of fruit, it’s better to have something than nothing. Studies have also shown that people who eat breakfast are less likely to have weight problems.
Resistance training.
By increasing muscle and decreasing your body fat, you will raise your energy levels. Aim to use free weights a couple of times a week to see a noticeable difference.
Stress management.
Stress is one of the primary causes for exhaustion and fatigue. Though a certain amount of stress is inevitable in today’s society, you can eliminate some of it with better organisation and planning. Exercise is a great way of relieving stress levels and getting healthy at the same time.
Kate Barker
http://www.articlesbase.com/wellness-articles/extra-energy-107262.html
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March 3rd, 2010 at 10:13 am
How much extra energy capacity would it take if most people took up electric cars?
And where would that extra energy capacity come from? Solar? Wind? Nuclear?
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March 3rd, 2010 at 3:15 pm
If they recharged overnight, probably no extra capacity, but greter usage. Of what, you do well to ask
Right now, probably fossil fuel, since nuclear is run at full capacity and you grab whatever wind is going.
So to see if there is an immediate saving with electrical, one would need to compare well-to-wheels efficiency, comparing the generator efficiency x transmission efficiency x electric motor efficiency to the efficiency of the IC engine. And with further corrections for production and disposal energy costs.
As for carbon footprint, if the extra energy comes from coal, that’s a further factor of as I recall between 1.5 and 2 against electric.
Conclusion: a switch to electric vehicles seems to me (but I hope there will be more informed answers) to make sense ony in conjunction with a wider move to non-fossil-fuel generation.
References :
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:17 pm
For the US, if you include automobiles (32%) and light trucks (28%) in the transportation area (28%) of total energy that works out to 16.8% of the total energy. Currently 8.5% of the total energy consumed in the US comes from nuclear, a close approximation would be an additional 8.3% or nearly double the current nuclear power plant (electric only) production. Nuclear produces about 806,425 million kilowatt hours, so any additional electric production for transportation would need to supply approximately 800,000 million kilowatt hours.This does not take into account relative efficiencies between gas/electric vehicles and is a rough estimate based on numbers from the EIA/DOE.
References :
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=us_energy_transportation
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=nuclear_home#tab2
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=us_energy_use
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Chances are, it wouldn’t take nearly as much extra generating capacity as you’d expect, because most of the charging would be done in off-peak hours. However, it would increase depreciation on some types of existing generating capacity – natural gas plants in particular, less so for coal, and not really at all for nuclear (which is used pretty much exclusively for baseload anyways) – reducing the lifespan and/or increasing maintenance costs of these plants.
Also, the need to build additional generating capacity would vary a great deal from region to region. For instance, since certain regions along the west coast rely largely on hydropower, they’d need to substantially increase their generating capacity, as you can’t just order up more rain and snowfall. However, regions which rely primarily on nuclear and fossil fuels would merely need to keep their coal and natural gas plants running at a higher percentage of capacity later into the day.
All in all, if we were to go to 75% EV market penetration, by my back-of-the-envelope calculations, we’d need to add anywhere from 20 to 100 GW of capacity to the grid – roughly 20 to 100 typical nuclear reactors or large coal plants – depending on when people were charging up.
References :
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Some good approaches here. I’ll try and add an extra layer of complexity to bring us closer to the real answer.
The main advantage of electric cars is their efficiency. The Chevrolet Volt, Nissan Leaf and Tesla Roadster all report somewhere around 0.14kWh/km in terms of electricity into the battery – significantly better than the 2009 1.8 Diesel Ford Focus’ 0.55kWh/km of chemical energy.
Total required energy use depends on the efficiency of the power station and national grid. In the UK, efficiency of the grid is around 93%. Old coal power stations may be ~30% efficient, new gas ones may be 50-60% efficient.
The required electrical generation will be something like:
Energy use for transport*(Electrical efficiency/mean petrol efficiency)/grid efficiency. We assume Nukemann’s 16.8% of total US energy consumption to be correct and you get:
16.8 * (0.14/0.55)/0.93 = 4.6% of current US energy use.
So you can roughly halve Nukemann’s estimate; the output would be equivalent to a 60% increase in nuclear capacity. This is unlikely, since I’m not convinced recharging demand would be flat through the day; it would be variable, therefore you’d either need more total power, variable backup, smart grid tech or possibly even a reduction from the 60 new reactors since you can use night time power.
Pure electric vehicles running on a mix of nuclear/renewable would be approx a 95% cut in CO2 emissions. Carbon capture coal about 85%. Gas approx 60% and new coal about a 10% cut.
A hypothetical grid of 40% coal, 30% gas, 30% nuclear/renewables would be significant savings in raw energy use and CO2 cuts of about 50% for transport.
Burning oil in a power station to power electric cars rather than using oil directly in combustion engines would be a CO2 & fuel use saving of approx 25% assuming no improvements have been made in new oil burning power station design since the original ones were built decades ago.
Calculations available on request.
References :
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:23 pm
COAL my friend, good CLEAN COAL.
(can I call you my friend?)
Al Gore still owns Occidental coal doesn’t he?
References :
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:25 pm
All generation plants have to run at an excess power in their current state otherwise we would have brown outs when someone flipped another light switch on. If we plug in more electric appliances in depending on the systems used to charge the vehicles the demand will only change slightly. Off peak charging would be ideal, most residences are charged a standard fee, no reason or benefit to charge during off peak hours. And because it is off peak in one place doesn’t mean it is off peak everywhere and the largest consumers of electricity run 24 hour, AC is transmitted everywhere and shared.
Probably the equivalent of using older inefficient electric devices, or having a hair dryer running all day.
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March 3rd, 2010 at 3:27 pm
I would imagine this would require at least 100 new power plants. And they would probably all run on coal.
References :